The Reverse Brain Drain
Sam Gustin writes at TIME that we have an exodus of highly skilled immigrants from this country, and it's a problem:

United States policymakers are failing to address the departure from this country of tens of thousands of talented immigrants -- including engineers, doctors, lawyers and teachers. These highly-skilled workers are leaving the U.S. because they can't obtain permanent residency here. Outdated immigration laws and regulations, bureaucratic delays and partisan bickering have created a Kafka-esque situation where the U.S. is inexplicably telling the smartest immigrants to go home. In the midst of a hotly contested presidential race in which immigration is a key issue, forget about actual immigration reform anytime soon. As per usual, U.S. politicians are all talk, but no action.

America's "immigrant exodus," as described by author Vivek Wadhwa, should be very alarming for a country built on the backs and minds of immigrants.

...As a result of this "reverse brain drain," as Wadhwa and his colleagues called it in earlier research on this topic, highly skilled workers and professionals are increasingly looking to other global markets to locate their businesses. "We're seeing a boom in technology entrepreneurship in India, China, and even Russia, because the U.S. won't let people stay here," Wadhwa told TIME. "Their first choice is to be here. They came here, they're working here, they want to stay here, but we won't give them visas."

This is a very bad trend for the U.S., especially at a time when we need to encourage and cultivate entrepreneurship and job creation at home. The toxic U.S. political climate -- partisan bickering, congressional inaction, and bureaucratic inertia -- have only worsened the problem. Both political parties are to blame -- and the over-arching debate over undocumented immigrant amnesty has all but ruled out progress during an election year. "Both the Democrats and the Republicans agree that we want the entrepreneurs, the scientists, the doctors, the researchers," says Wadhwa. "Everyone agrees that we want these people to stay. But there's a stalemate on the issue of amnesty for illegal workers."

"The Democrats won't let any legislation pass unless it solves the problem of the illegals," Wadhwa adds. "The Republicans won't let any legislation pass if it solves the problem of the illegals. It's a quagmire, because they refuse to agree with each other. It's two sides fighting each other mindlessly." Wadhwa says the United States Congress should pass a law reforming our immigration system that allows the most talented immigrant entrepreneurs, engineers, lawyers, doctors to gain U.S. citizenship. Until then, our cash-strapped education system is simply going to train these people, before we send them back home.

The whole thing looks like opinion masquerading as fact. No numbers, no examples of people who actually did anything new in India, China or Russia but were stopped from doing the same here. This guys article just seems to be something to ease immigration rules, but the benefits he is toting seem too exxagerated. Honestly, how many leading enterprises in America are founded by Indians or Chinese or Russians and if these guys were so brilliant how come they have still not been able to develop something good from their enterprises in India, China or Russia? The number of brilliant people is quite less and not running into tens of thousands the way this guy makes it seem and the few brilliant have many ways of getting to America and making it big over there.

BTW, I am Indian and not some white supremacist. I worked in America for five years and returned back to India and I continue to work for the same folks whom I used to work for when I was in America.

Posted by: Radrajesh
at October 14, 2012 10:46 AM

Radrajesh, the article refers to a recently published book of research, described on Amazon (buy it via Amy's link) thus:

"Many of the United States’ most innovative entrepreneurs have been immigrants, from Andrew Carnegie, Alexander Graham Bell, and Charles Pfizer to Sergey Brin, Vinod Khosla, and Elon Musk. Nearly half of Fortune 500 companies and one-quarter of all new small businesses were founded by immigrants, generating trillions of dollars annually, employing millions of workers, and helping establish the United States as the most entrepreneurial, technologically advanced society on earth.

Now, Vivek Wadhwa, an immigrant tech entrepreneur turned academic with appointments at Duke, Stanford, Emory, and Singularity Universities, draws on his new Kauffman Foundation research to show that the United States is in the midst of an unprecedented halt in high-growth, immigrant-founded start-ups. He argues that increased competition from countries like China and India and US immigration policies are leaving some of the most educated and talented entrepreneurial immigrants with no choice but to take their innovation elsewhere. The consequences to our economy are dire; our multi-trillion dollar loss will be the gain of our global competitors.

With his signature fearlessness and clarity, Wadhwa offers a concise framework for understanding the Immigrant Exodus and offers a recipe for reversal and rapid recovery."

Posted by: Michelle
at October 14, 2012 8:39 PM

"are leaving some of the most educated and talented entrepreneurial immigrants with no choice but to take their innovation elsewhere"

Any examples for the above? What innovation has happened elsewhere which you can directly link to the US immigration policies?

Posted by: Redrajesh
at October 15, 2012 4:55 AM

"TSA doesn't help either. Expats like to go home for the holidays."

This is important - skilled people have choices, and skilled people also don't like putting wives/children through molestation just to travel.

"What innovation has happened elsewhere which you can directly link to the US immigration policies?"

I'm in the software industry and I personally know of at least two instances ... one is one of the world's leading companies in a particular niche hardware/software field (I don't want to give away identifying details), who found the US immigration policies insurmountable and hostile, but found Australia offered everything the US offered and more, and their immigration services were helpful and efficient, so they're transferring the business to Australia, moving many direct and indirect jobs there. This is a tiny tip of a large iceberg. Don't look at the high unemployment figures and scratch your head and wonder why.

The reality is that there are thousands of cases like this, and each one chips away at the American economy. Those jobs that leave, never come back.

Posted by: Lobster
at October 16, 2012 11:30 AM

In fact, basically the ENTIRE raison d'etre of the Blueseed project, to frikken plonk a massive boat to house startups just outside the legal jurisdiction of the United States, is just to get innovators closer to America ... the whole thing is basically only there as an attempt to work around the broken immigration policies of the US. I mean, let that sink in for a while, just how absurd that is ... US immigration policies are so badly broken, that job-creating startups have to try 'route around the damage' by setting up a massive boat in international waters.